In Israel, New Tension Flares

June 13, 1986|By Jonathan Broder, Chicago Tribune.

JERUSALEM — Israeli leaders warned of a civil war between religious and secular Jews after arsonists torched a synagogue Wednesday in retaliation for an escalating wave of religious vandalism and violence.

Prime Minister Shimon Peres summoned his key cabinet ministers for an urgent discussion on the worsening relations between the country`s religious and secular communities.

The violence also threatened to precipitate a political crisis as Israel`s chief rabbis urged religious party heads to leave the ruling coalition if the government did not enforce religious rights.

Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir grimly predicted that the violence and intolerance between secular and religious Jews in Israel ``are all clear signs of hatred among brothers that can lead, heaven forbid, to civil war.``

``We are on the threshold of a cultural war,`` warned Interior Minister Yitzhak Peretz, who is also an ultra-Orthodox rabbi from the Shas party.

Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, furious with the erosion of his carefully constructed balance of opposing communities in Jerusalem, blamed the Orthodox for waging a ``civil rebellion`` and warned that unless the government stamped it out, more acts of secular retaliation would follow.

The early-morning fire at a Tel Aviv synagogue was the worst incident of secular backlash so far against Orthodox Jews who have been burning and spray- painting bus shelters bearing advertisements for women`s bathing suits.

The Orthodox, who make up less than 10 percent of Israel`s 3.5 million Jews, say the ads violate laws against immodesty and offend religious sensibilities.

Although the religious vandalism has angered many secular Israelis, the synagogue arson jolted the Jewish state, prompting President Chaim Herzog to warn against ``the growing trend toward extremism in Israeli society.``

He compared the arson to the infamous Kristalnacht of 1938, when Nazis burned Germany`s synagogues and vandalized Jewish businesses.

``Just thinking about the burning down of a synagogue by Jews makes me shudder,`` Herzog said. ``It`s a nightmare Satan himself couldn`t create.``

Police said a note pinned to the door of the synagogue vowed: ``For every bus station burned, we will burn a synagogue.`` It was signed: ``People Against the Ultra-Orthodox.``

A parliamentary debate on the arson incident ended in uproar when Yossi Sarid, a deputy representing the anticlerical Citizens Rights Movement, was expelled after a shouting match with ultra-Orthdox legislator Menachem Porush. Sarid called Porush a ``a thug and a Cossack`` for his announcement last week that he would join those who have been vandalizing bus shelters and billboards in Jerusalem.

Over the last six months, religious Israelis have burned or vandalized almost 50 Jerusalem bus shelters displaying advertisements.

Five members of the ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta sect, arrested on vandalism charges, were jailed for three months Tuesday; 10 others were released on bail.

``I cannot grasp why the accused were released,`` Kollek said. ``In my opinion, these people should be arrested and kept far away from Jerusalem. They should receive suitable punishment for the terrible things they are doing.``